There is no direct reference to accessibility in procurement rules or policy, although there is some limited attention given in guidelines to government departments. There are no obvious direct barriers to including accessibility requirements where relevant to particular procurements, but more general inclusion of accessibility capabilities as a pre-qualifier might be more problematic.
A fixed operator or person designated by the Director of Telecommunications Regulation is required to maintain affordable services for users, in particular those in rural and high cost areas and vulnerable groups of users, such as the elderly, those with disabilities, and those with special needs.
The Oasis (On-line Access to Services, Information and Support) website developed at Comhairle is an Irish e-government initiative. Oasis is one of a number of related measures initiated by government to reform the Irish Public Service. One of the major goals of the Oasis Project is to deliver information on the web that is accessible by everyone.
Under the Technical Aids Adaptation Grants Scheme, grants for ICT are administered by the user organisations (e.g. National Council for Blind People) and paid for by the regional Health Boards. In areas of high population, there tends to be a very long waiting list for these grants and allocation is prioritised but is not means tested. Usually, partial funding is provided, but full funding is sometimes provided where necessary.
Assistive technology provision in general is underdeveloped and ICT-based AT even more so. A key issue is availability of funding and the length of waiting lists in regions of high demand. Conventional technical aids are supplied free of charge only to fully eligible applicants. The process of delivering basic aids is the responsibility of the community care service of the regional Health Boards. However, in many cases for deaf, blind or speech impaired persons, specialised voluntary organisations provide the service and are refunded by the health boards or from their own resources. The cost of aids to applicants is dependent on financial status. Costs are fully covered for holders of general medical cards, for aids provided from a standard product list. Ad hoc expenditure on ICT equipment sometimes happens, such as extra budget provision at end of year for a few years.
There are no services for electronic newspaper broadcasts, electronic books, audio description (TV) or remote reading of documents. Screen readers, however, can read material on newspaper websites, and it is possible to use scanners to read text material in documents.
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